Paul Krugman's Morning Joe obsession -- Saturday edition

2/16/13 4:38 PM EST

Paul Krugman is a man obsessed. The ideologue who infamously said last week that America need not worry about its entitlement crisis until health care programs melt down in 2025 has written yet another blog post hyper-focusing on his one Morning Joe appearance. Now he is trying to use a fellow Princeton colleague as a human shield, of sorts, against this most radical of notions.

Unfortunately for Krugman, Alan Blinder has never subscribed to the flighty notion that Washington should ignore the Medicare crisis until its collapse in 2025. Far from taking a glib approach to our long-term debt crisis, Professor Blinder uses an Atlantic Monthly piece to warn of America's "truly horrendous budget problems" in the future brought about by health care costs so large that "spending cuts must bear most of the burden."

Professor Blinder continues on this point later in the Atlantic piece saying, "The government can cover no more than a small fraction of the projected deficits by raising taxes. Sorry, Democrats, but the Republicans are right on this one."

Mr. Blinder is also correct in saying that America's long-term debt crisis cannot be ignored indefinitely even if large deficits can be sustained comfortably for much of the next decade.

Before Paul Krugman further embarrasses himself by pretending long-term debt can be ignored until 2025, he should pay closer attention to Alan Blinder's warning. A storm is coming that will surely make fools of those on the far left and right. America needs a balanced approach to short-term growth and long-term debt. In balancing the competing challenges of both problems, ideologues like Paul Krugman only makes matters worse by offering simplistic solutions to difficult long-term challenges.